It’s not hard for an actor like Ben Kingsley to get us to care about his character. He did as much 13 years ago in Iron Man 3, the second he dropped his guise as the Mandarin to reveal that he was actually Trevor Slattery. The efficacy — not to mention the morality — of this twist has been the topic of heated debate ever since, but no one can deny that Kingsley isn’t utterly sympathetic in the role. Sure, he’s cosplaying as a wincing racial stereotype, but his total ignorance and unbounded optimism is, admittedly, a bit funny.
Of course, Marvel still had to answer for the crime of “remixing” the Mandarin at all, and it did as much with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in 2021. There, director Destin Daniel Cretton introduced the man whose real organization had been co-opted for a heavy-handed racial caricature, reimagining the Mandarin as Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) and reintroducing Trevor as a prisoner doing penance for his role in the whole charade. It was a satisfying way of tying up the loose ends of Iron Man 3, but in this year’s Wonder Man, Cretton reveals that he’s not done with Trevor Slattery. As easy as it might have been to write the character off as misguided comic relief, Wonder Man takes things further, turning the controversial red herring into an actual person — one we can actually root for.
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